Switzerland's specific actions in development cooperation, cooperation with Eastern Europe, humanitarian aid, multilateral cooperation, the global programmes, development policy, and research and culture

Using and incorporating the knowledge of federal agencies, cantons and communes; engaging in political dialogue with governments with a view to achieving reforms or better economic and social conditions

Forests and trees cover around one-third of the earth's surface today, but are receding in many places. Both are needed to counter global warming as they absorb carbon dioxide from the air. The SDC has several forest protection projects which help to reduce climate risks.

The SDC's focus

A quarter of the world's rural poor depend directly or indirectly on forests. Around 70 million people, including indigenous communities in particular, depend exclusively on forest resources for their livelihoods. At the same time, forests play an important role in mitigating climate change as they absorb carbon dioxide from the air. This makes forests an indispensable part of any approach to the global issues of climate change and poverty. The SDC's forest projects thus have a two-fold advantage: they contribute to reducing both poverty and climate risks.

The Global Programme Climate Change's activities in this area are guided by three priorities:

Global forest policy and its integration in Swiss forest policy Supporting global thematic forest partnerships; having a proactive influence on the development of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and related global processes in this field; coordinating with other Swiss federal offices

Operational forest programme with three regional initiatives on the role of forests and rural areas for climate change mitigation and adaptation Namely the Swiss Partnership on Social Forestry and Climate Change in Asia, African Forests, People and Climate Change in Africa, and the initiative on Andean forests and their role in climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Andes

Focal point for forest issues: supporting bilateral forest programmes and providing consulting services on the topic

Background

25% of the earth's surface, approximately 33 million km2, is covered in forest. In the last 20 years, an average of 130,000 km2 of the world's forests has been lost every year - roughly three times the size of Switzerland. A further 10 million km2 of forests is degraded because of unsustainable exploitation or agricultural expansion. The destruction of forests has a direct impact on the local and global climate as well as on biodiversity, the availability of water and soil fertility.

Fostering change in thinking and behaviour

Many countries have unsustainable land-use practices. Measures are needed to foster techniques that are diversified and adapted to the local context. One such possibility is to grant incentives for smallholder farms to adapt to agroforestry or to reforest small plots of their land. The SDC's goal is to maintain the long-term potential of agriculture and forestry.

Adapting land-use planning and regulations

If land is collectively owned, new land-use regulations to regenerate natural forest vegetation and bushland are needed. These rules should include all social strata in the rural communities. Earning income from adapting to forest management and receiving compensation for providing environmental services are important practical incentives to sustainably manage collective resources. That is why the SDC promotes a holistic understanding of sustainable forest and land use among all stakeholders.

Current projects

The forests of the Andes are valuable in a variety of ways: they store and purify water, provide protection against natural hazards, and absorb environmentally harmful greenhouse gases. With the ANFOR project, the SDC is contributing to the long-term protection of Andean forests.